Quo vadis, Warriors?
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 31 Mar 2018
Four years ago, the Golden State Warriors hired Steve Kerr as coach in what, by design, started the team?s road to greatness. Since then, Kerr?s Warriors made three finals appearances, winning two NBA championships and establishing the greatest regular season record of 73 wins as against 9 losses.
After bowing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and losing, in the process, the title won the previous year, the Warriors acquired Kevin Durant from the free agent in addition to their ?Splash Brothers? Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson and defense specialist Draymond Green, turning them from a solid team to ?Super Team.?
The Warriors, indeed, looked to have found the needed ingredients on how to be great. Their best players were young and seemingly healthy. They have arrived in year four. So it seemed.
Going into the playoffs this season, Curry, Durant, Thompson and Green, their All-Star players, are suffering from separate injuries that would prevent them from seeing action in crucial games although they looked safe to making it to make the first round with a second place finish behind West Conference leader Houston Rockets.
Curry, the main cog in the Warriors? offensive machine, was able to return from another ankle injury to only leave the game against Atlanta with a Grade 2 MCL sprain. Durant's return from a rib injury, likewise, ended early. The All-Star forward was ejected with 2.4 seconds left in the first half of the Golden State Warriors' 116-107 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night.
Green, who missed the three previous games due to pelvic contusion and flu-like symptoms, returned, too, and had 11 points and six assists. Thomson, according to Golden State team website, will soon suit up. Meanwhile, the Warriors had dropped their third straight game and seventh in 10 outings, allowing the Houston Rockets to lock up the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. They outlasted the Phoenix Suns, 104-103, Saturday.
Golden State remains firmly in the No. 2 slot in the West and Kerr refused to make too much out of Durant's ejection. Durant leads the NBA with five ejections and now has 14 technical fouls, two short of the threshold for a one-game suspension. Durant, who had 10 points, six assists and three rebounds in 17 minutes against the Hawks, said of his conversations with the refs, "I could definitely talk to them a little better, I guess."
Having the largest Filipino population in California, the San Francisco Bay Area, in particular, the Golden State Warriors, it can safely be said, command, too, the biggest Filipino fan base the whole of the United States. Curry?s mother, Sonya Curry, no less acknowledged this when the Warriors ended their 40-year NBA title drought in 2015, thanking the support of the Filipinos to the team?s campaign.
For the past several years, the Warriors have been hosting a Filipino Heritage Night annually by way of acknowledging the basketball-crazy Filipinos? support to the team. Why, the first Filipino-American, Raymond Townsend, was the Filipino fans? first NBA icon. At 6'3," Townsend suited up as point guard for the Warriors shortly after being picked in the first round of the 1978 NBA draft.
Townsend played for UCLA first before getting to the NBA and becoming a member of the Golden State Warriors. It is for these two reasons why Filipinos in the U.S. and here in their mother country are worried of their favorite team?s fate in the coming playoffs.
If Warriors owner Joe Jacob is to be believed though, there?s nothing to worry about. Jacob, the latest member of the organization to express an unshakable belief in the Warriors overcoming obstacles and making a deep run in the post season. Contrary to what many believe, Jacob, in fact, thinks the Rockets could be out before potential playoff showdown.
Lacob has strong belief, the Warriors will reach the Western Conference Finals. The Houston Rockets, on the other hand, may not. ?We don?t know what?s going to happen. Houston could get upset if you?re so worried about Houston,? Lacob said earlier this week during an interview with San Francisco?s 95.7 The Game, via The Mercury News.
?They are the best right now, there?s no doubt. They are the best team and we?re looking up to them but that doesn?t mean they?ll be there. We may be there and they might not be there. You have to prove it on the court.? As Lacob noted, the Rockets (61-14), should, indeed, be regarded as the team to beat in the west. Houston is absolutely rolling, by having won 27 of its past 28 games, highlighted a previous 17-game winning streak and their current 10-game run of consecutive victories.
But as Warriors are well aware, everything changes come postseason time. It?s which team is playing best at the time. It would appear from Lacob?s comments ? not to mention what Steve Kerr recently said ? that when it comes down to it, the Warriors will be the team to beat, not the Rockets.
Whether that is true or not, though, remains to be seen.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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